Word of caution in wards of waste

OUR CORRESPONDENT

From empty liquor and saline bottles to used syringes — every other odd thing can be found on the state’s largest government hospital campus.

The Telegraph spotted at least a dozen empty liquor bottles at Rajendra Surgical Ward of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) on Sunday. Quite expectedly, the PMCH administration could not come up with a satisfactory answer when asked about the presence of the empty liquor bottles on the campus.

Bimal Karak, deputy superintendent, was first surprised to know about the presence of empty liquor bottles in the health hub. Later, he asked this correspondent to talk to the hospital superintendent, Lakhendra Prasad. “Please talk to the superintendent. He will be the right person to tell you anything on this matter,” he said.

Prasad also did not accept that liquor bottles were strewn on the campus due to the laxity on part of the hospital administration. “Some attendants of the patients might have drunk liquor on the hospital campus at night and they might have left the bottles,” said Prasad.

However a PMCH doctor, who did not wish to be named, ruled out the possibility of the patients’ attendants in the act. “How can patients’ attendants do this? They already stay awake in anxiety. This is impossible that they will indulge in such things,” the doctor said.

Besides empty liquor bottles, biomedical waste was found dumped in many corners of the hospital. Empty bottles of saline water, used syringes were found in the Rajendra Surgical Block building and near the emergency wing of the hospital. Blood was also spotted in some of the used syringes in the surgical ward.

The emergency ward was no better with blood scattered on its floor with surgical gloves and dead fly in it.

Vijendra Yadav, a patient’s attendant in the ward, said he hardly found anyone cleaning the floor. In the same ward, a used syringe was found on the bed of a patient. The syringe was lying near the patient.

Sources said the presence of untreated biomedical waste on the hospital campus is quite shocking because the hospital has its own incinerator and it has engaged a private party in destroying such waste through its incinerator but hospital sources said the machine was not in use in the last few days.

“I don’t know whether the incinerator has become non-functional or not but it is not in use for last few days,” said a junior doctor of PMCH on condition of anonymity.

However, superintendent Prasad claimed that the incinerator was working.

PMCH doctors expressed concern on the presence of biomedical waste on the campus. “Biomedical waste can expose the patients to AIDS, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C among others,” said a senior PMCH doctor who did not wish to be named.

Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, president, state chapter of Indian Medical Association, said: “Sanitation should be the priority of the hospital administration, doctors and allied bodies like Patna Municipal Corporation.”